Strength and conditioning coach Casey Glass discusses training for longevity in special operations, highlighting energy balance and auto-regulation. She emphasizes the importance of movement quality and individualized training methods. The podcast explores optimizing training, nutrition's impact on cognitive resilience, and techniques for maintaining proper form during workouts.
Energy balance, auto-regulation, and movement quality are key components of training for longevity in special operations.
Proper selection of exercises focusing on movement quality can prevent injuries and enhance operators' longevity in their careers.
Deep dives
Importance of Training for Longevity in Special Operators
Training for longevity is crucial in special operations as the intense training and fast-paced workups and deployments can lead to movement limitations and injuries. Special operators often neglect considering their future health, leading to chronic pain and multiple injuries. Coach Casey emphasizes the significance of preparing for long-term health to maintain fitness and avoid health issues throughout an operator's career.
Factors Affecting Longevity and Training Approach
Casey breaks down training for longevity into three main components: energy balance, auto-regulation, and movement quality. Energy balance involves ensuring adequate food intake and sleep to support training and recovery. Auto-regulation focuses on adjusting training intensity based on readiness and fatigue levels. Movement quality is vital for longevity as improper movement patterns can lead to injuries and limitations, emphasizing the importance of selecting appropriate exercises to maintain a stacked position.
Implementing Energy Balance and Auto-Regulation
Maintaining energy balance involves avoiding overtraining and underfueling by finding a balance in training intensity, food intake, and sleep. Auto-regulation techniques, like using rate of perceived exertion or reps in reserve, help adjust training based on daily readiness and prevent overexertion. Casey highlights the need to match training intensity with recovery capacity to optimize performance and prevent injuries.
Promoting Movement Quality for Longevity
Focusing on movement quality is crucial for preventing injuries and optimizing performance in special operators. Casey emphasizes the importance of utilizing exercises that allow for a stacked position, such as front squats and goblet squats, to improve center of mass control. By starting with foundational movements and incorporating core strengthening exercises, operators can enhance movement patterns and reduce the risk of injuries, promoting longevity in their careers.
Casey Glass has been a strength and conditioning coach at an active-duty special operations unit for nine years. Alongside helping the operators she works with to excel in their training workups and deployments, Casey also manages their preparation training for selection into tier-one units.
In this episode, we speak with Casey about training for longevity. This is an important issue for anybody in the world of special operations. The intensity of the training and the pace of workups and deployments can take a major toll on operators, and they can pick up movement limitations and injuries surprisingly fast. Many SOF commands are sort of like laboratories designed to accelerate the aging process in athletes if you’re not actively accounting for longevity in your training and recovery processes.
During her time coaching special operators, Casey has seen this process play out countless times and, over the years, has developed an approach that helps prolong operators' lifespans so they can stay healthy and capable throughout their careers.
Timestamps:
00:00:20 Intro
00:01:27 What Does Training for Longevity Mean?
00:04:45 Energy Balance
00:09:30 Long-Term Effects of Under-Eating While Training
00:12:23 What Makes Operators Successful
00:13:52 Auto Regulation
00:17:10 Velocity Apps
00:19:35 Auto Regulation and Conditioning
00:23:16 Movement Quality
00:25:05 What Brings People Back to Damaging Training
00:28:28 Which Modality is Most Effective?
00:32:34 Types of Training Methods
00:35:38 Controlling Your Center of Mass
00:37:32 Cues for Good Positions
00:39:07 Contextual Factors for Stacking Ribcage
00:42:25 Social Media and Resources
00:42:55 Outro
For more about Casey, go to https://linktr.ee/warfighterhp
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